Elliot Daly is still giddy at the memory. “They were the biggest games I’d
ever played in in my career,” he says, when asked to recall his appearances
in the National Under-18 Cup final.

“At my school, Whitgift, we won it in 2010 and 2011, and I played in both finals. They were all the best things about playing rugby rolled into one massive occasion.”

Daly, who plays for Wasps, is just one of dozens of leading rugby players to have been blooded in the competition, which remains the premier tournament in schools rugby.

England captain Chris Robshaw, Manu Tuilagi, Courtney Lawes, Tom Croft, Freddie Burns and Marlon Yarde also harbour fond memories and credit the tournament with helping to set them on the road to the top in rugby union.

The tournament this year is now beginning to gather pace, with second-round fixtures in the Under-18 and Under-15 tournaments taking place up and down the country this week.

Around 1,000 teams take part each year across the country: all schools that enter play for a main cup and there is also a vase for teams knocked out in the early rounds, all culminating in a finals day at Twickenham.

While the emphasis from the Rugby Football Union is on enjoyment and increasing participation, this is also a serious business, with fixtures fiercely contested and preparations that border on meticulous.

“The games are always high pressure, so you have to be ready for that,” said Daly, whose Whitgift team also included the London Irish wing Yarde and Lawrence Okoye, the Great Britain discus thrower-turned American football player.

“You have to work hard with your team to get where you need to be, ready for each midweek game. Planning meetings and strategy are very important. Other teams can easily get videos of you playing. We, as a team, looked at how other teams played, and how we would get around them. You have to remember that for some players it will be the highest standard they are ever involved in.”

Sam Howard, head of rugby at Dulwich School, who retained the Under-18 Cup in 2013 with victory by 27-17 against Northampton School for Boys, recalled the thrill of competing which enveloped the school.

“All the boys – and the staff – get really excited and it sounds weird but in a much smaller way it was almost like the atmosphere around the country last year with the Olympics. The national cup’s got the feel-good factor about it and that swept through the school.”

Dulwich took almost 6,000 supporters to the final last year, held on a Saturday, at Twickenham.

“In the first year we entered [two years ago] it was just one of those things – we’ve got to get through it, we’ve got to win and we probably didn’t soak up everything involved in playing at Twickenham as much as we did this year,” Howard said. “Arriving on the coach was like the moment when the England team arrives, and when the boys were cheered into the stadium it was lovely.

“We were fortunate enough to be in the England changing room so the boys absolutely loved the fact they’d all got their individual changing places. They could reflect on all the superstars who had changed there.”

Finals day this year attracted an estimated 20,000 supporters to the home of England rugby, with a further 58,000 watching on rfu.com via a live stream.

Bob Reeves, the RFU president, believes the competition sets the benchmark for the game against anywhere in the world. “The NatWest Schools Cup has more teams competing at fifteen-a-side than any other and has given countless schoolboy players the opportunity to experience the very best of competitive rugby at their age level,” he said.

“Over the years many of those competing have gone on to play at the highest level and international stars often talk of their first experience of playing at Twickenham Stadium being alongside their school friends and how momentous and memorable the experience was for them.”

The Telegraph is the official media partner of the Rugby Football Union and the NatWest Schools Cup.